Daniel's Trebuchet Blog

Hey everyone! We are rebuilding the trebuchet this summer and planning to take it to Punkin Chunkin!  Please check out the fundraiser below.  All the great videos of the project are there! I need to get into the idea of blogging about this project.  I will try to let you follow along as we rebuild the machine over the next two months.  Look for more posts in the coming weeks! https://www.gofundme.com/f/medieval-trebuchet-goes-punkin-chunkin

Recently there have been several internet sources posting that Edward I's prized trebuchet, Warwolf, was 300-400 feet tall.  I've watched this notion pop up over the last year and everyone eats it up without question. But this is totally ridiculous and doesn't pass a common-sense check, let alone present any primary sources. Warwolf was probably 60 feet tall or there-abouts, but we have no way of knowing exactly because no sources say how tall it was. Seriously, how could a trebuchet ever be 400 feet tall?  That's taller than many cathedrals in Europe, which took decades to build.  A trebuchet by design is limited to the height and size of available trees to construct the machine, and unless you are in the Redwood forest in California trees are not that tall.  Because of the square cubed law, a trebuchet that large would probably break.  Even today building one that large would be ridiculous.  No trebuchet has been, or ever will be, 300-400 feet tall. I persona

10/2/18 I've decided to just go ahead and start documenting the project as it is now.  We are more than half-way through the workshop phase, but I can come back and talk more about things we have already done later once the project is finished for the year.  I won't have the time to blog the current backlog until after this season. Today we test fitted the new frame.  This involved fitting each joint separately and then putting them all together by raising each side and plugging in the side strut.  The frame joins together with mortise and tenon joints.  The pieces on the ground are put together first, and then the main rails are laid sideways on top of them and the a-frames and uprights plugged into the rails.  Then the axle blocks are fit on the top of the uprights and a-frames and the assembly, called in timber-framing a "bent," is raised barnyard-style by having a person walk-up each piece.  Once a bent is in the air we can plug in the corresponding side-strut

Hello!  My name is Daniel Bertrand, and I am an undergraduate studying History at Utah State University.  In this blog I will document my trebuchet project this season in Fall of 2018.  I have built four trebuchets over the last four years, and last year I decided to go medieval.  I am in the middle of a research project to rebuild my medieval trebuchet from last year.  Many of the pieces need to be replaced and some design aspects need to be improved, so it's basically a total rebuild.  This blog will discuss how I am building the machine down to the technicalities of my construction choices.  It will probably reveal how much of a newbie I am at this kind of thing.  I hadn't really used a power drill until the first time four years ago.  This blog will also talk about the logistics of my project and how I am sourcing all my materials and getting things done.  Half of the work on this is doing paperwork and arranging things with various aspects of the University.  This blog wil